Live at Jittery Joe's

Orange Twin;
2001

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Once upon a time, singer/songwriters walked the Earth proudly. Armed with
acoustic guitars and words of personal experience and political protest,
they set out to teach the world how to think, feel, and listen. Fortunately,
the Earth caught on pretty quickly, and it soon became apparent that scraggly
individuals whining about failed romances and their inability to pay rent can
only entertain for so long. Without the benefit of a massive meteor to help
thin their ranks, singer/songwriters were left largely to wander the streets,
looking for coffeehouses and bars where they could force their misery upon
unsuspecting patrons.

Live at Jittery Joe's is a decent-quality recording of a man playing
an acoustic guitar and singing at a local coffee bar. But this is not by any
stretch of the imagination typical singer/songwriter fare. This is Neutral
Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum spinning his unique, beautifully tangled web
of visceral flesh imagery, odes to Anne Frank, and cryptic, vivid storytelling.

The material on Live at Jittery Joe's, which was recorded after the
release of Neutral Milk Hotel's debut 1996 debut, On Avery Island, but
before the release of their masterwork, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,
consists largely of material culled from these two albums, as well as a few
unreleased tracks and a cover of Phil Spector's "I Love How You Love Me." The
set starts out with a version of "A Baby for Pree" and a shortened, heavily
altered version of "Where You'll Find Me Now," a two-song sort-of-suite from
On Avery Island. Mangum heavily alters the lyrics of "Where You'll
Find Me Now" to include lines like, "I will be strong/ Strong enough to shout/
Above your voice that's blaring on/ With your face that's falling out/ Into
the dust of what you are." The lyrics don't approach the beauty of those in
original version of the song, buy they afford it a fresh, stream-of-consciousness
feel that makes it somehow more affecting.

Another song to appear in a different form on Live at Jittery Joe's is
"Two-Headed Boy Part 2" from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, possibly
the most heart-wrenching moment to be found on that album, and one of a very
small number of songs that has been known to move my cold, cynical self to
tears. Introduced as a song about "a family that lived in the 1940's in
Europe," "Two-Headed Boy Part 2," like many of Mangum's songs, transmits raw
emotion through cryptic, evocative lyrics. When he sings, "In my dreams you're
alive/ And you're crying/ Move your mouth into mine/ Soft and sweet," his
voice aches with an intensity that seems to defy the limits of human emotion
and expressiveness.

The acoustic treatment fits some album cuts better than others. Tracks like
"Gardenhead" and "King of Carrot Flowers Parts 2 & 3" lose a good deal of
their impact without the fuzzy, explosive backing found on the album versions.
But songs like "Oh Comely" and "Two-Headed Boy," both of which appear on
Aeroplane as essentially acoustic numbers, gain a harshness from the
live treatment that suits them perfectly.

And then there are the unreleased tracks. "I Will Bury You in Time" is the
only Mangum original that's available only on this recording, and it
unfortunately fails to stand up against the featured album tracks. Perhaps
the only Neutral Milk Hotel song I've heard that sounds awkward and clumsy,
"I Will Bury You in Time" is definitely on the weaker end of unreleased
Neutral Milk Hotel song-spectrum (my two personal favorites being "Oh Sister"
and "Little Birds," both of which can be found on live bootlegs).

A much better non-album track comes with "Engine," a b-side from the
"Holland, 1945" seven-inch that recently appeared on a Merge Records
compilation. Written as a song for children, "Engine" contains fanciful yet
typically strange lyrics about, among other things, round captains talking
to tigers from cafeteria trays. More importantly, "Engine" has one of the
most haunting melodies I've ever heard, ensuring that those odd, vivid images
won't be leaving you any time soon.

Rounding off the unreleased portion of Live at Jittery Joe's is Jeff
Mangum's cover of the Phil Spector classic "I Love How You Love Me." Mangum's
voice absolutely brings the song to life, making Spector's simple words seem
profound and beautiful.

Of course, the true brilliance of Jeff Mangum is that everything he sings
sounds profound and beautiful. His lyrics are visceral and unique, but it's
the wrenchingly powerful way in which he sings them that makes them resonate
so intensely. Live at Jittery Joe's certainly resonates, but a few
weak tracks, some intrusive crowd noise, and the informative-yet-distracting
between-song banter prevents it from striking with the power of In the
Aeroplane Over the Sea.

But that's not the point. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea will always
stand as a perfect example of Jeff Mangum's almost superhuman talents as a
singer and songwriter. Live at Jittery Joe's documents a less refined,
more casual side of Mangum, and does a pretty damned good job of it. I get
the feeling that this show wasn't recorded with "live album" in mind, and
that element of candidness makes it essential for Neutral Milk Hotel fans
such as myself, who weren't lucky enough to see Jeff in concert.

Even with the candid and casual nature of this recording, there remains an
element of mystery and otherworldiness to Jeff Mangum. Live at Jittery
Joe's comes with some gorgeous video footage of the entire performance.
Very dark and difficult to make out, Mangum's face appears as little more
than a shadow, writhing in time with the alarmingly affecting words he
sings-- almost as if the words are being driven by an intangible force. And
it's these moments, when it's hard to separate the mystery from the humanity,
that make the album absolutely worthwhile.